Electronic book readers, such as the Kindle® and iPad®, are known that allow books to be distributed digitally.
Authors know the value of book signings for bringing out fans of the author, who purchase their book in order to get a personalized signing of the book by the author. This is often the way that authors help to drive sales of their books.
Electronic book readers do not have a way for authors to personalize the books.
Digitizer systems are known that use pen, stylus or finger as a pointer on a touch pad, screen or digitizing tablet. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,473,073 and 6,689,965 describe a digitizer system that includes a pointer, such as a stylus or puck, for manipulation by a user over a work surface of a tablet. The position of the pointer on the tablet is indicated by a cursor of some type, and the cursor shape can change depending on functional aspects of operation being performed on the tablet. The digitizer system is used to operate a computer system for text editing or drawing pictures, for example. A menu strip is added to the digitizer screen to reduce the need to look away from the digitizer. The reference teaches that some programs are designed to use stylus pen pressure and position date, such as Fractal Design PAINTER™, and some are not. The Digitizer system does not teach or suggest its use with electronic book readers or any features for use in author personalization of electronic books. European patent publication EP 0 964 327 B1 describes a software routine that can change the shape of the cursor as a function of pointer location on a menu strip and a system for use of a stylus designed for use with this system.
WO 2009/144740 is an international publication of international application no. PCT/IN2009/000290. This application discloses a method and system for obtaining an autographed photograph via a mobile communications network. The user selects the background upon which the autograph of a celebrity will appear, and the user selects the customized text that will appear on the background. The system converts the text to have the appearance of writing and adds the celebrity's autograph, which is stored for this purpose on the system, on the chosen background. The “personalized photograph” is then sent to the user of the system. This system teaches away from obtaining the signature of the celebrity by transmission to the site at which the celebrity is actually present, which is described as cumbersome. This application teaches that the prior art does not reveal any simply implemented method and system for obtaining the autograph of a celebrity when the user is at a location remote from the celebrity. Thus, this application teaches a system that does not require the actual participation of the celebrity in the preparation of a “personalized photograph” including the celebrities autograph.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,697,713 discloses another method and program for distributing, transmitting and producing “personalized” autographed photographs of celebrities. However, the personalized message and autograph merely “resembles the handwriting of the celebrity figure” based on samples of the celebrity's handwriting.
U.S. Pat. Pub. Nos. 2009/0171750 and 2009/0171751 disclose a method of providing fixed computer-displayable content in response to a consumer request for content, which includes an advertisement in print on-demand content, which is then provided to the consumer. In this way, the advertisement is included within the content selected by the consumer, such as by adding the advertisement to the margin of a page in a book or by adding a full page advertisement between two pages in the book. The method primarily discloses print-on-demand technology to provide physically printed content to the consumer. In one embodiment, however, the method does provide an E-book with the generated advertisements within the content of the E-book. The advertisement is stored on the system with metadata to identify the advertisement such that the advertisement may be selected for inclusion within the content requested by the consumer. This publication fails to teach or suggest any personalization of the content by an author or in any other way.